شراب
Sharâb is the everyday Persian word for wine, both the literal alcohol and the mystical wine of Sufi poetry. A2 vocabulary with a cultural-legal twist.
Arabic
طرب
طرب (tarab): the ecstatic joy of mystical love and music. The state of being lifted out of ordinary mood. Pair-state with سوز (suz, the burning).
غمزه
غمزه (ghamze): the teasing sideways glance of the beloved. Half coquetry, half cruelty. One of the small but lethal weapons of the Persian poetic face.
شمع
شمع (sham’): the candle. In Persian Sufi poetry, the beloved who consumes the lover-moth. Also the literal candle of mosques, shrines, and birthday cakes.
خرابات
خرابات (kharâbât): the ruined tavern of the Sufi imagination. Hafez’s symbolic counter-mosque, where mystics gather away from orthodox judgment.
بقا
بقا (baqâ): persistence, eternity, what remains after فنا (annihilation). The second half of the Sufi pair, the divine continuance after the ego dissolves.
فنا
فنا (fanâ): annihilation, the dissolving of the self in divine love. The Sufi station that pairs with بقا (baqâ). The central drama of Hafez and Rumi.
اصلاً
Aslan means “absolutely” or “at all,” and Iranians use it most often to slam the door on a question: aslan na, absolutely no. A1 colloquial, Arabic-loan, indispensable.
حیوان
حیوان (heyvân) is “animal.” Arabic loanword, A1 priority. Generic noun in normal use, low-tier curse when shouted.
مثنوی
مثنوی (masnavi) is a Persian poetic form in rhyming couplets. Also THE Masnavi: Rumi’s six-volume mystical epic, the central Sufi text alongside Hafez’s Divan.